


Forever War

by ThatPilotGirl



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Guilt, Team as Family, we need to have a conversation about real life history for a sec
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:28:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25795894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatPilotGirl/pseuds/ThatPilotGirl
Summary: There are things that Nicky let himself stop thinking about. And then Booker happened. and then he stopped again. And then Nile happened.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 89





	Forever War

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing.

"You didn't start it. You never gave the orders." Joe tells him one night when they have flipped past something on the history channel that has sent Nicky down one of his occasional spirals.

"But I was there. I stole from your people, I murdered your people. And because of what we did, because of what _I_ did..." He trails off.

How could he have thought it right? How could he, how could any of them have believed that the God of their ancestors would have demanded so much destruction? The Muslims, in hindsight, had known their shared deity better, fighting to defend instead of conquer.

"Booker and Nile never should have had to be soldiers."

"People have always fought." Andy comments, stepping in to the room. "Hell, Bonaparte would have relit that tinderbox for his own ego, never mind taking down the Ottomans for the west. Dressed down a pope once or twice from what I remember; he wasn't the biggest fan of Christianity himself."

Nicky heaves a deep sigh.

"He did turn around and put the Copts in charge though. It was still the same conquerors. The same driving bigotry. The same land, again and again, that has been overrun. Because of what we did. Because we built the tinderbox out of our own misguided senses of glory. My heart has forgiven me, but my mind has not. And now Nile..."

Nile, with her dark skin. She would certainly not have fought for the church; she and Joe, perhaps, would have defended their city side by side. She could have been a noble in Egypt while Booker was deserting. But through separate tragedy, maybe before Booker and maybe after, she found herself fighting for Nicky's side. History loves its ironies. Nile died in the same long war as her father, but in the scheme of things Nile died in the same long battle as her father in a war that Nicky started.

Andy crosses to the couch in a few efficient strides as Joe says "You have spent your years since trying to do what was right."

Nicky, as Andy sits down on his other side, replies "I thought I was right in my first life."

To that, there is no reply. Joe puts his arm around his love, his heart, his other half while Andy flips the TV off and the artificial flames of the fireplace on.

Eventually, Andy speaks again.

"Jerusalem still stands. Cairo still stands. Baghdad and Kabul will still stand. Cities carry the scars that we don't, but they survive every siege nonetheless. They heal, and children grow up within their walls. This time, perhaps, we can help them."

**Author's Note:**

> Fandom has touched on some of these ideas briefly, but I do think we as a group need to have a reckoning with the real history and associated power dynamics at play in this team, specifically that four of them have died in wars either focused on or including "The West (Christianity and white people) vs. The Middle East (Islam and POC)". I went through several versions of this fic before it ended up the way it did. 
> 
> I promise I'm gonna post another fluffy and fun fic for TOG soon, but I needed to get this down.


End file.
